Canadian firm eyes first deep-sea mining permit despite challenging UN framework

The global race for critical minerals is rapidly expanding beyond national borders and into the deep ocean, setting the stage for a legal and geopolitical confrontation over who has the right to exploit the world's seabed. The case of a Canadian mining company, motivated by a recent legislative adjustment by the US administration, has brought this issue to the forefront.

A Canadian mining company is now poised to become the first to commercially extract minerals from the international seabed under a highly-discussed US executive order that bypasses the United Nations' regulatory framework.

As demand for cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and rare-earth elements continues to surge—driven by electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies and defence industries—governments and companies are increasingly turning to the ocean floor, where vast deposits of polymetallic nodules lie scattered across thousands of square kilometers.

On May 28, Vancouver-based The Metals Company (TMC) announced that its USA-B exploration license application had been certified by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), marking a significant milestone toward commercial seabed mining.

The company said the certification advances its effort to explore polymetallic nodules containing high-grade cobalt, copper, nickel, manganese and rare-earth elements. The next stage involves the publication of a draft environmental impact statement for public consultation, with TMC expecting the process to culminate in a commercial mining permit by the first quarter of 2027.

Clash over international waters

While technological advances have made harvesting seabed minerals increasingly feasible, the industry's biggest obstacle remains legal rather than technical.

Most polymetallic nodules are located in international waters beyond any country's territorial jurisdiction.

Around 90% of UN member states have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which defines the deep seabed as the "common heritage of mankind" and states that its resources are "vested in mankind as a whole." The United States, however, never ratified the treaty.

That difference has become increasingly significant. In April 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate approvals for seabed mining projects beyond US national waters.

In practical terms, Washington intends to issue permits for mining in parts of the ocean floor that fall outside the territory of any nation, without going through the licensing process administered by the UN's International Seabed Authority (ISA).

Soon afterwards, TMC USA submitted what it described as the first commercial recovery permit application covering roughly 25,000 square kilometers of the Pacific seabed. The proposal was later expanded to approximately 65,000 square kilometers.

International opposition grows

The US approach has drawn sharp criticism from international officials and many governments.

ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho argued that unilateral mining outside the UNCLOS framework violates international law.

"No state has the right to unilaterally exploit the mineral resources of the [deep sea] outside the legal framework established by UNCLOS."

The International Seabed Authority has spent more than a decade attempting to finalize comprehensive regulations governing commercial deep-sea mining. Negotiations began in 2014, but as of June 2026, member states have yet to reach agreement on the final rulebook.

The regulatory deadlock has fueled growing frustration among mining companies eager to begin extracting minerals viewed as essential to the global energy transition.

Washington charts its own course

US officials argue that because Washington neither signed nor ratified UNCLOS, it is under no legal obligation to seek ISA approval before authorizing mining activities.

Instead, the administration relies on the Deep Seabed Hard Minerals Resources Act, a largely dormant piece of US legislation that was briefly used to issue exploration permits in the early 1980s before falling into disuse.

The competing legal interpretations have turned deep-sea mining into more than an environmental debate. As countries race to secure supplies of critical minerals, the question of who controls the resources beneath international waters is emerging as a new geopolitical flashpoint—one that could reshape both global mineral supply chains and the future of ocean governance.

By Nazrin Sadigova